Stoker.



W. H. HAAS.

STOKER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. ll. 19M.

Patented July 23, 1918.

' ij CE.

WILLIAM H. HAAS, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, .ASSIGNOR TO MURPHY IRON WORKS, OI? DETROIT, MICHIGAN, A CORPORATION OF MICHIGAN.

STOKER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 23, 1918.

Application filed November 11, 1914. Serial No. 871,484.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. Haas, a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, in the county of \Vayne and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Stoker's, of whichthe following is a specification.

The leading object and salient feature of the present invention is the production of a Stoker mechanism for underfeed furnaces which shall be simple in structure, economical to manufacture, easy to repair and operate, and in which the fuel feed may be readily modified to meet the required needs of the service and the character of the fuel employed. Fuel retorts in this style of furnace with reciprocable bottom walls or floors have been heretofore proposed, but none of these have been equipped with coal pushers movable with the retort-bottom and adjustable to vary or regulate the feed or advancement of the fuel. Much less have such retort bottoms or walls been provided with independentl adjustable fuel pushers, so that the feed 0 fuel in the different portions of the furnace may be controlled effectively. It is to improvements along these lines that the present invention is directed.

A desirable embodiment of this invention has been illustrated in the accompanying drawing formin a part of this specification, and to which re erence should be had in connection with the following detailed description. Throughout the various views of this drawing, like reference characters refer to the same parts.

In the drawing,-

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through the furnace construction, with certain parts broken away to more clearly illustrate the structure;

' Fig. 2 is a planview of the retort, its fuel pushers and their adjusting devices, the

grate bars and other parts being omitted for outstanding ribs 15, 15 at their upper edges;

resting and slidable on the supporting ribs 12, 12, the floor or bottom wall having at certainpoints one or more substantially semicylindrical cavities 0r recesses 16 and 17, two in the present instance, although the exact number is not important. The upper portions 18, 18 of the retort side-walls are disposed above the parts 14, 14 and bolted at 19, 19 to the supports 10 and 11 so that their inner faces will be substantially flush with the corresponding faces of the parts 14, 14. The irate bars 20, 20, which may be of any suit. le design or form, rest upon the tops of the supports 10 and 11, and incline downwardly from the retort on opposite sides thereof. The parts 13 and 14 may,

' if preferred, be cast in sections and bolted together at 21, 22, and, in order to strengthen these castings, they may be equipped with depending marginal stiffening ribs 23, 23.

The front wall of the furnace is illustrated at 24, and the bridge wall at-25, the retort at the bridge wall having a downwardlycurved rear .wall 26 which facilitates or occasions the upward passage or forcing of the coal as it is pushed rearwardly by the coal pushers. The front of the furnace is provided with a hopper 27 which delivers the fuel into a chamber 28 in front of the furnace and in communication with the retort. The coal which enters the chamber 28 is forced r'earwardly into. the retort by means of a plunger 29 fixed to the reciprocating retort-bottom.

Any suitable mechanism may be employed for sliding the retort bottom and the pushers which it carries. In the present instance I have illustrated a shaft 30 carrying a disk 31 connected to the retort floor by means of a pitman or link 32, whereby the-slow rotation of the shaft 30 will cause the pitman to travel inwardly and outwardly, thereby bringing about proper reciprocation of the movable parts 0 the retort; it being understood that the shaft 30 is rotated relatively slowly by any proper mechanism, not illustrated.

To supplement the action of the piston or plun er 29 and to bring about an even dcsirab e distribution of the coal in the retort and on the inclined grates, I prpvide each of the cavities 16 and "17 with a substantially semicylindrioal coal or fuel pusher 33 and 34, respectively. The pusher 33 1S fixed and mounted on a transverse shaft 35 supported in the sides of the sliding portion of the retort and projecting through the farther side, as illustrated. The other pusher 34 1S similarly mounted on the shaft 36 accommodated in bearings in the slidable side walls of the retort and projecting beyond the near side wall, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the projecting part having a gear sector 37, the teeth of which are in mesh with those of a rack 38 carried on the end of a bar 39 slldable in the supports or bearings 40 and 41. The front end of the bar 39, by means of a pin and slot connection 42, is connected to an adjusting handle 43 fulcrumed at 44 and carrying a locking dog 45 adapted to take into any one of a plurality of apertures 46 on an arcuate flange forming a part of a member 48 suitably supported on the sliding portion of the retort, so that as the floor or bottom wall 13 and the portions of the retort side-walls rigid therewith slide back and forth, not only the fuel pushers 33 and 34 will be carried by it, but also each of their adjusting mechanisms. It is to be understood that the shaft 35 of the coal pusher 33 is adjusted by a mechanism l ke that described for the shaft 36, but which is located at the other side of the retort, and comprises a gear sector 49, rack 50, reciprocatory bar 51, bearings 52, 52, adjusting handle 53, locking dog 54, and notched, apertured flange 55. It should be noted that the top face of each of the fuel pushers 33 and 34 is substantially, though not exactly, flat and inclined at a slight elevation. It should be observed also that when these pushers are in the positions illustrated in Fig. 1, a portion of their rear abrupt Walls is exposed, and a portion of the abrupt front walls of the cavities 16 and 17 is likewise exposed to the fuel. The result is'that when the retort floor travels forwardly, these pushers, owing to the slight inclination of their top faces, readily ride under the fuel without materially disturbing it; but when the retort floor and the pushers are caused to travel rearwardly, the abrupt exposed faces of thtz'ypushers and recesses engage the fuel and push it rearwardly and upwardly, so that the coal is fed not only rearwardly, but also upwardly, so as to overflow onto the oppositely inclined grates.

In some cases it may be desirable, due to the kind of service required or the character of the coal employed, to vary the feed, and this can be accomplished by manipulation of either or both of the handles 43 and 53, so as to modify the extent of the projection of the pushers into the retort and the extent of exposure of the recesses to the fuel. Obviously, the more the pushers are rocked to project into the retort, the greater the fuel feed, and the less they project into the retort the smaller the coal feed.

- It should be clear that by manipulating either of the handles 43 or 53, the corresponding pusher can be angularly adjusted and held in such new position by the locking of the handle with its corresponding aperturcd flange, which of course is concentric with the fulcrum of the handle. In the present, instance, the locks 45 and 54 are nothing more than manually removable pins which act to lock the levers to their flanges, but of course other devices performing the same or equivalent function might be employed with equally good results.

The claims of this application are not to be limited and restricted to the details of construction shown and described, because in this application I have merely attempted to show a desirable embodiment of the invention, it being understood that the latter is susceptible of many embodiments varying more or less in mechanical structure, but all incorporating the features of advantage accruing from the employment of the invention.

I claim: I

1. In an underfeed-furnace stoker construction, the combination of a fuel-retort having a recessed slidable wall, means to reciprocate said wall, a fuel-pusher accommodated in said recess and adapted to travel with said wall and remain fixed in position relative thereto during themovements of the wall, and means to adjust the position of said pusher in said recess to vary the extent of exposure of the wall of the recess vto the fuel whereby to regulate the fuel feed with out modifying the action of said wall-reciprocating means, substantially as described.

2. In -an underfeed-furnace stoker con struction, the combination of a fuel-retort having a recessed slidable wall, means to reciprocate said wall, a fuel-pusher adjustably accommodated in said recess, ada ted to travel with said wall and remain xed in position relative thereto during the movements of the wall, and constructed so that adjustment thereof will vary the extent of the projection of the pusher into the retortand will modify the extent of exposure of the recess wall to the fuel, whereby'to regulate the fuel feed, and means to adjust said fuel-pusher without modifying the action of said wallreciprocating means, substantially as described.

3. In an underfeed-furnace stoker iconstruction, the combination of a fuel retort having a slidable wall, means to reciprocate said wall, a plurality of fuel-pushers carried rat by said wall and adapted to travel with the wall and remain fixed in position relative thereto during the movements of the wall, and means to adjust said ushers independently to regulate the fueleed without modicatin fying the action of said wall-reciprocating means. substantially as described.

4. In an underfeed-furnace stoker construction, the combination of a fuel-retort having a slidable floor provided with a plurality of recesses, means to reciprocate said floor, a fuel-pusher in each of said floor recesses disposed transversely of the directionof the movements of the floor and ada ted to remain fixed in position relative to t e floor during the movements of the latter, and means to turn said pushers independently about their axes to adjust their positions to regulate the fuel feed, without modifying the action of said floor-reci n'omeans, substantially as described.

5. 11 an underfeed-furnace Stoker-construction, the combination of a fuel-retort having a slidable floor with a substantially semi-cylindrical transverse cavity, a substantially semi-cylindrical fuel-pusher accommodated in the cavity and adapted to project into the retort, and means to turn said pusher about its axis to adjust its position, whereby to regulate the fuel-feed, sub stantially as described.

6. In an underfeed-furnace Stoker-con- 'struction, the combination of a fuel-retort having a slidable floor equipped with a plurality of substantially semi-cylindrical transverse cavities. means to reciprocate said floor, a substantially semi-cylindrical pusher accomodated in each of said cavities and adapted to project varying amounts into the retort, and means to rock said pusher-s about their axes to adjust their positions. whereby to regulate the fuel feed, substantially as described.

7. In an underfeed-furmice Stoker-construotion, the combination of a fuel-retort having a floor andportions of its side-walls slidable, said floor having a transversecavity, a shaft extended through one of said movable side-wall portions, a fuel-pusher in said cavity mounted on said shaft, a bandle fulcrumed on the movable portion of the fuel-retort, and means connecting said handle and projecting part of the shaft, whereby the shaft may be angularly adjusted to regulate the position of the pusher and govern the fuel feed, substantially as described.

WILLIAM H. HAAS. Witnesses:

Ina M. YANKLE, OLIN HARVEY. 

